Joint champs (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Bountymen share title honours with Cove

1:00pm Monday 5th September 2011 in Cricket By Graham Merry

BASINGSTOKE and North Hants ended up as joint champions of Thames Valley League division one – despite losing by two wickets to visiting Amersham in their final game of the campaign on Saturday.

On a bizarre day the Bountymen picked up three more points in defeat than season-long leaders Cove did for drawing against Finchampstead.

The two teams finished level on points – but it is Cover who will be offered promotion to the Home Counties League as they won more games. However, it is thought that the champions could decline a move up and, if that happens, Basingstoke will be promoted.

On Saturday, the Bountymen finished just three runs or one wicket short of the extra bonus point that would have secured promotion.

They recovered well after batting first and being reduced to 114-6, finishing on 197-8 as captain Russell Droy top-scored with 41, with good support from Chris Froud and Dean Nurse, who both made 36.

The game looked set to end in a draw as Amersham needed 10 from the last over to secure victory, but two consecutive sixes from Jaco Nel saw them win by two wickets with three balls to spare.

A reflective Basingstoke captain Droy said: “We have come so close and can look back at points dropped along the way – as I am sure Cove can as well. We should have won at Beaconsfield early in the season and we also had Henley nine down and they held out for a draw.

“We wanted to get promoted, but we will have to wait and see what happens as I have been told Cove don’t want to go up.

“If that is the case we will be offered the place and will accept it.”

Looking back on the final game of the season, Droy said: “We needed to get 200 out there today, but our top order did not do as well as they have all season and in the end we did well to get to 197.

“We found it tough to get wickets, but spinner Raja (Raja Naseer Ahmed) has done really well coming into the team and getting four wickets.”

See The Monday Gazette for a full report.